Apple May Buy Stake In Twitter
CUPERTINO, Calif. (CBSMiami) — Apple has stumbled to break into social media, but that may soon change thanks to help from a power player.
CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald reports the iGiant has talked with Twitter in recent months about making a strategic investment in it, citing people briefed on the matter.
While Apple has been hugely successful in selling phones and tablets, it has little traction in social networking, which has become a major engine of activity on the Web and on mobile devices. Social media are increasingly influencing how people spend their time and money — an important consideration for Apple, which also sells applications, games, music and movies.
Apple has considered an investment in the hundreds of millions of dollars, one that could value Twitter at more than $10 billion, up from an $8.4 billion valuation last year, these people said. They declined to be named because the discussions were private.
There is no guarantee that the two companies, which are not in negotiations at the moment, will come to an agreement. But the earlier talks are a sign that they may form a stronger partnership amid intensifying competition from the likes of Google and Facebook.
Apple has not made many friends in social media. Its relationship with Facebook, for example, has been strained since a deal to build Facebook features into Ping, Apple's music-centric social network, fell apart. Facebook is also aligned with Microsoft, which owns a small stake in it. And Google, an Apple rival in the phone market, has been pushing its own social network, Google Plus.
"Apple doesn't have to own a social network," Timothy D. Cook, Apple's chief executive, said at a recent technology conference. "But does Apple need to be social? Yes."
Learn how Twitter and Apple have already been working together, plus how Apple is poised to benefit from the deal, in the Miami Herald article.
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